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AI Ruined Quora

jonn.substack.com

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Re: AI Ruined Quora

#3
On a seperate note, why do people feel the need to exaggerate their Quora profile/education level/accomplishments? I'm not the only one who's noticed how many Quora profiles are filled with ludicrous, self-aggrandizing descriptions, right?

Re: AI Ruined Quora

#5
Quora was already ruined and pretty much worthless for a very long time. When a query on google has quora, I hardly ever click on it as I know a) it won’t answer the question most likely b) I walk into this incredibly confusing ux experience.

Re: AI Ruined Quora

#7
post #3

On a seperate note, why do people feel the need to exaggerate their Quora profile/education level/accomplishments? I'm not the only one who's noticed how many Quora profiles are filled with ludicrous, self-aggrandizing descriptions, right?

Because some people mistake walking past a university lecture hall with getting a degree.

Re: AI Ruined Quora

#8
post #3

On a seperate note, why do people feel the need to exaggerate their Quora profile/education level/accomplishments? I'm not the only one who's noticed how many Quora profiles are filled with ludicrous, self-aggrandizing descriptions, right?

> On a seperate note, why do people feel the need to exaggerate their Quora profile/education level/accomplishments?

As in it is Quora specific or it's always been this way? People haven't changed...

Re: AI Ruined Quora

#9
post #3

On a seperate note, why do people feel the need to exaggerate their Quora profile/education level/accomplishments? I'm not the only one who's noticed how many Quora profiles are filled with ludicrous, self-aggrandizing descriptions, right?

I'm not a 100% sure, but I've got a feeling that having a well-regarded Quora profile became a Thing in India and other parts.

Then people started spamming "answers" to every question they could even tangentially produce some gibberish for.

10 years ago Quora was a place where you could get an actual expert answering questions (a thing they should've done on their own site tbh[0] with references and actual insight. Now it's just like what experts exchange turned into.

[0] https://indieweb.org/POSSE

Re: AI Ruined Quora

#10
I wonder if it would really come down to AI if you did the user research, maybe focused on the “onboarding” process. I remember a time back when you would get a Quora result on a search query and you could click on it be find a few answers with comments on them to help you determine their merits.

This is completely anecdotal, but these days I honestly can’t even find the answer if I click on a Quora result on a search engine. Instead I’m created by “similar” questions and what not in an UI I don’t really understand too well. Now, I was never a Quora user, as in, I never signed up for an account. So I’m probably not in their target audience. With their modern entry point, however, I’ve simply banned their domain from my search results along with sites like Pinterest because they are essential just a wasted of time if I accidentally hit their sites.

Maybe that doesn’t matter. I would have probably never signed up to actually answer things, or even ask, but if anyone who would be potential user is like me. Then they won’t ever get to the “onboarding” process of joining the site, and I’d wager that was more damaging than AI. LLM’s are more akin to the final nail in the coffin for a lot of these sites who have made it so user hostile to join their “communities”. Again, it’s just anecdotal, I’ve done or read no research. But I do think that it’s interesting that we’re now at a point where many people will include “Reddit” in their search queries when looking for answers, and Reddit is the easiest side in the world to join or even read without signing in (at least old.reddit is).

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